Inspired by actual events, Remembrance is a remarkable story about a pair of seemingly doomed lovers who miraculously reunite 30 years after World War II. A young Polish prisoner,Tomasz, daringly rescues his Jewish lover, Hannah, from Auschwitz. In the chaos of post-war 1944 Poland, they become separated, each convinced the other has perished. More than three decades later in New York City, the happily married Hannah sees Tomasz in a television interview from behind the Iron Curtain. Overwhelmed with emotion and vowing to find her lost love, Hannah's charmed life with her American husband and daughter faces a test of fate and loyalty.

Opening Night Reception in Avery Court, Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art
immediately following film.

Contains mature Holocaust dramatizations; for high school age and above.

Encore Screening Wed March 21, 2012 8:15 pm

When a storm makes a mess of the neighborhood, everyone lends a helping hand. Our Sesame Street friends learn about mitzvot (good deeds) and the many ways in which people can work together and treat one another with kindness. In the meantime, Grover is invited to a Bar Mitzvah in Jerusalem while special guest star Jewish reggae musician Matisyahu performs a beatbox duet of Hava Nagila with Moishe Oofnik. A special mitzvah craft project, refreshments and PJ Library stories will follow for everyone.

This is the exquisitely crafted portrait of the fearless and feisty 100-year-old reporter, photographer, memoirist and humanitarian Ruth Gruber, who became the world's youngest PhD at age 20. A feminist before the movement began, she became a New York Herald Tribune foreign correspondent at 24, and was the first reporter to enter the Soviet Artic. For seven decades she didn't just report the news...she made it. Gruber, who has written 19 books and received numerous awards, secretly escorted Holocaust refugees to America, was an eyewitness to the Haganah ship Exodus, covered the Nuremberg trials and had access to world leaders including Eleanor Roosevelt and David Ben-Gurion.

2010 Winner, Best Documentary, Miami, Denver and Palm Beach Jewish Film Festivals, Berkshire International Film Festival.

Screening with THE TENTH MAN

Kidnapping and dirty tricks when it comes to finding a minyan are the way of the street among the aging Jewish community of London's East End.

This film is about faith, friendship, family and the challenges of being different in America, as seen through the eyes of Daud, a Muslim boy studying to be an Imam and his Orthodox Jewish friend, Yoav. Through an innocent act of good faith, Daud befriends a group of Brooklyn Yeshiva students who assume he is one of them. "David" plays along, unable to resist the joys of baseball cards, swimming and music. The web of deceit unravels, forcing Daud and Yoav to confront the complexities of life in multicultural Brooklyn, and the reality of prejudice, cultural boundaries and different religions.

Winner, Ecumenical Prize, Montreal World Film Festival, 2011
Official Selection, Rome International Film Festival, 2011
Winner, Napa Valley Film Festival Special Jury Award, 2011

Film will be followed by Reel Talk and dinner with special invited guests:

Joel Fendelman, Director
Muatesem Mishal, "Daud"
Binyomin Shtaynberg, "Yoav"
Noam Wienberg, "Shmulie"

26 years in prison could not crush the spirit of Deborah Peagler, despite the injustice she experienced at the hands of her abusive boyfriend and later by Los Angeles prosecutors who used the death penalty threat to keep her locked up. This wrenching documentary tells the dramatic story of Joshua Safran, an Orthodox Jewish land-use attorney, who volunteers to free Deborah from prison. Deborah was a survivor of domestic violence, sentenced to life behind bars for her connection to the murder of the man who abused her, at a time when shelters and support groups were non-existent. Over time, Joshua finds that his defense of Deborah offers him a chance to heal his own wounds, and dispel the myth that domestic violence never occurs in Jewish homes.

Mature theme and language; suitable for high school age and above.

Best Investigative Documentary Feature, San Francisco International Film Festival

Justice Matters Jury Prize, Washington DC International Film Festival

Official Selection: 2011 Sundance Film Festival, Oprah Winfrey Network Documentary Club, Los Angeles Film Festival, Miami International Film Festival

On a coastal Israeli farm, the Rosko family is quietly struggling to keep up appearances while hiding their sins, small and large. Disconnected Miri (Ronit Elkabetz) teaches kindergarten and is having an affair; her husband Gidi (Tzachi Grad) is an addict who can't hold a job. Son Yoni (Yoav Rotman) yearns to become a man while practicing for his bar mitzvah and selling homework assignments to bullies. When their autistic first-born son Tomer (Michael Moshonov) arrives home unexpectedly after a decade in an institution, the family falls apart. United around Yoni's chanting of his Noah's Ark Bar MItzvah portion, the brothers grow closer in a world of make-believe, as their family life crumbles. It takes a crisis, Tomer's magical presence and a flood to reunite them and bring to light what really matters.

Winner, Best Supporting Actor, Israeli Ophir Awards
Winner, Best Feature, Best Cinematography, Haifa International Film Festival, 2010
Six Nominations, Israeli Ophir Awards

Encore Screening Saturday, March 24, 2012 8:30 PM

Born in New York's East Village 25 years ago, the Grammy-winning Klezmatics have been at the vanguard of the international klezmer revival. This joyous documentary follows the band for three years on tour in the U.S and Eastern Europe. From back stage to concert stage, at home and on the road, director Anjou candidly captures the band's triumphant highs, frustrating lows, and upbeat march forward as they continue pushing the musical boundaries as a group and as independent artists. Their sensational collaborations with music legends Chava Albertstein, Arlo Guthrie, Itzak Perlman and kosher-gospel artist Joshua Nelson have redefined contemporary Jewish music, earning them a special place in the hearts of Jewish and world music lovers.

Reel Talk Immediately Following Film

Invited Guest Speaker

Erik Greenberg Anjou, Director

Get into the mood starting at 5:00 PM in the Chase Family Gallery and enjoy the klezmer sound of the Heavy Shtetl band. Nosh on farm-fresh kosher delicacies from The Isabella Jewish Retreat Center, Falls Village, CT or purchase supper at the Mandell JCC's Cafe J.

Screening with THE TAILOR.

Culture and confusion meet on a Brooklyn street.

Hoping to break through an impenetrable wall of denial, Phil Jacobs, crusading former editor of the Baltimore Jewish Times, uncovers child sexual abuse perpetrated by trusted Orthodox rabbis and educators in his city and writes a taboo-breaking series of articles. Jacobs' pen becomes a sword of justice and truth as personal demons and revelations come to light, death threats are received and the establishment responds with cover-up, ostracism and accusations of lashon hara (speaking evil). This honest, heart-wrenching and intense film about child sexual abuse among Jews shatters the silence, finally allowing the survivors to find their voice as the healing begins.

Mature content and explicit language; for high school age and above; parental guidance suggested.

Recipient, Sundance Documentary Filmmaker Grant

Reel Talk following film

Invited Guest Speakers

Lynn Marcus-Cohen, LCSW, Jewish Family Services of Greater Hartford
Rabbi James Rosen, MSW, Beth El Temple, West Hartford
Phil Jacobs, Editor, Washington Jewish Week
Scott Rosenfelt, Director, Standing Silent

After his longtime business partner dies in questionable circumstances, Jacob Fidelman (Sasson Gabai) discovers that his antique restoration shop is also at death's door, as is his withering relationship with Noah, the scheming son who wants to sell the business. Salvation may come in a neglected but valuable 1882 Steinway piano discovered by Jacob's handsome new apprentice, Anton, who also is in love with Jacob's very pregnant daughter-in-law. The beautifully crafted plot lines and exquisite nuances of this modern Israeli family drama remind us about what we value, and what's worth restoring.

Winner, Best Feature Film, Best Editing, Best Music, Best Cinematography,
Jerusalem Film Festival 2011

Winner, Best Film, Grand Prix Crystal Globe Award
Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, 2011

11 Nominations, Israel Ophir Awards

Winner, Dramatic Screenwriting Award, Sundance Film Festival, 2011

Inspired by actual events, Remembrance is a remarkable story about a pair of seemingly doomed lovers who miraculously reunite 30 years after World War II. A young Polish prisoner,Tomasz, daringly rescues his Jewish lover, Hannah, from Auschwitz. In the chaos of post-war 1944 Poland, they become separated, each convinced the other has perished. More than three decades later in New York City, the happily married Hannah sees Tomasz in a television interview from behind the Iron Curtain. Overwhelmed with emotion and vowing to find her lost love, Hannah's charmed life with her American husband and daughter faces a test of fate and loyalty.

Contains mature Holocaust dramatizations; for high school age and above.

An enchanting journey into history that celebrates life and the immortality of memories, this is the uplifting story of the peaceful and secluded 130-year-old Weissensee Jewish Cemetery, on 100 acres of splendid, lush wooded land north of noisy Berlin, Germany. The meticulously kept cemetery has operated continuously under Jewish authority even during the Nazi regime and holds 115,000 graves with their fascinating stories. This surprisingly film features an array of colorful characters: mourners, a wise storybook rabbi, treasure hunters and tourists, a young family residing at the cemetery, a third-generation gravedigger and an ornithologist studying rare birds of prey.

Winner, Panorama Audience Award, Berlin International Film Festival, 2011.

Ali Messalam, 14, learned to hate Jews growing up in a Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon. Yearning to be accepted in his new Berlin neighborhood, Ali mixes with the wrong crowd. An anti-Semitic teen prank turns ugly and Ali gets caught vandalizing the apartment of his family's upstairs neighbor Alex Zamskov, an aging yet feisty Russian Jewish widower. Reluctantly, Ali's punishment is to refurbish the home of his victim, with whom he forges an uncommon bond. This touching story about unlikely friendships, trust, loss and the art of forgiveness blurs the lines between enemies and friends with humor and pathos.

Audience Award, Boston Jewish Film Festival, 2011.

This triumphant dancing-with-the-child-stars film recreates the World War II true story of Jewish Lea Deutsch, the Shirley Temple of Zagreb's Children's Kingdom touring theater, and her best friend and German dance rival Daria Gaasteiger. Their friendship deepens as the Nazis invade and fate intervenes. Dance champions Lea and Daria were friendly competitors, but their mothers struggled with more dangerous roles - persecuted Jewish mother vs. Nazi Party member. Put on your dancing shoes but keep the tissues nearby for this lushly lensed feature starring Croatia's top dance stars, filmed in and around the majestic Zagreb Theatre.

On a coastal Israeli farm, the Rosko family is quietly struggling to keep up appearances while hiding their sins, small and large. Disconnected Miri (Ronit Elkabetz) teaches kindergarten and is having an affair; her husband Gidi (Tzachi Grad) is an addict who can't hold a job. Son Yoni (Yoav Rotman) yearns to become a man while practicing for his bar mitzvah and selling homework assignments to bullies. When their autistic first-born son Tomer (Michael Moshonov) arrives home unexpectedly after a decade in an institution, the family falls apart. United around Yoni's chanting of his Noah's Ark Bar MItzvah portion, the brothers grow closer in a world of make-believe, as their family life crumbles. It takes a crisis, Tomer's magical presence and a flood to reunite them and bring to light what really matters.

Winner, Best Supporting Actor, Israeli Ophir Awards
Winner, Best Feature, Best Cinematography, Haifa International Film Festival, 2010
Six Nominations, Israeli Ophir Awards

ReelAbilities: Connecticut Disabilities Film Festival

The Mandell JCC and The Saul Schottenstein Foundation B, in partnership with the New York Disabilities Film Festival present a day of general and Jewish films celebrating the stories, lives and artistic expressions of people with disabilities. All films and Reel Talk conversations will be held at The Emanuel Synagogue, 160 Mohegan Drive, West Hartford, CT 06117. This venue features free parking and handicapped accessibility. All films are closed captioned and a signer for the hearing impaired will be on site.

Four United States Iraq War veterans - Kortney Clemons, Scott Winkler, Melissa Stockwell and Carlos Leon -fight to turn the nightmares of battle into Olympic dreams. After losing limbs and suffering paralysis they set out to do what many thought impossible, to compete in the 2008 Paralympic Games in Beijing. Through failure, pain and triumph, Warrior Champions follows these soldier-athletes as they train and compete for a new goal - spot on the team. From the battlefields of Iraq, to the Walter Reed Army Medical Center to the track fields and swimming lanes in Beijing, this emotional film is an uplifting testament to the human spirit that challenges every notion of what it means to be disabled.

Reel Talk
Invited Guest Speakers

Representatives from The Sports Association of Gaylord Hospital
Moderator, Denis Geary, Executive Director, Jewish Association for Community Living

Twelve-year-old Itamar has a deep passion for ice skating. However, he is slowly losing his hearing, and therefore his balance, forcing him to abandon his dream. Itamar refuses to accept his doctor's and parents' orders that he stay away from the ice rank. Together with his new skating partner, Natalie, they struggle and grow within a complicated world of adolescence.

Winner, We Care Filmfest New Delhi, India
Official Selection, Jewish Film Festivals, Vancouver, Grand Rapids, San Diego
Official Selection, Children's Film Festivals, Taiwan and Chicago

Screening with ALL DAY

In this romantic comedy short, two single deaf neighbors are looking for love but keep missing each other. Each neighbor admits to their friends that they fancy the other, but neither knows that the other is also deaf. Throughout the day they visit the same locations, but will they ever meet?

This film that inspired a movement follows aspiring fashion photographer Courtney Bent, whose career takes an unexpected turn when she discovers a hidden world of beauty at Watertown, Massachusetts center for people living with significant disabilities. From a photography project that started with a few cheap plastic cameras, and some duct tape, Shooting Beauty is an unforgettable masterpiece. Armed with video and still cameras, these unusual photographers all have varying degrees of disabilities. Some are non-verbal, many are in wheelchairs, and some take photos using only their tongue. When their work is transformed into a museum-worthy exhibition, they will make you rethink what it means to live with a disability - and without one.

Reel Talk Following Film
Invited Guest Speakers

Dr. Stephen Becker, President & CEO, HARC, Inc.
Albert Lognin, Self-Advocate, HARC, Inc.
Kaia Pazdersky, Unified Theater

This award-winning film from Director Michael King and Executive Producer Joyce D. Mandell documents the efforts of twelve diplomat heroes who defied the Nazis to save countless Jews during the Holocaust. The film traces the journey of Stephanie Nyombayire, a young Rwandan anti-genocide activist who teams up with Sir Martin Gilbert, the renowned Holocaust historian, to travel across fifteen countries and three continents. Filmed on location in London, Paris, Rwanda, Israel, Budapest, Denmark, France, Poland and Lithuania, they interview survivors and descendants of the diplomats who rescued tens of thousands of Jews from the unspeakable horrors of the Nazi death camps. While Nyombayire seeks to uncover potential solutions for the ongoing genocide in Darfur and other regions, what emerges is a testament to how the inherent good in the human spirit can trump institutional evil.

Reel Talk
Immediately Following Film

Invited Guest Speakers

Joyce D. Mandell, Executive Producer
Stephanie Nyombayire, Anti-Genocide Activist

Winner, Best of the Fest
    Palm Springs International Film Festival 2011
Winner, Best Documentary
    Palm Beach International Film Festival 2011
Winner, Best Documentary and Best Soundtrack
Winner, Humanitarian Angel Film Award & Best Narration
    Feature Film, Monaco International Film Festival, 2011
Winner, Best Historical Documentary,
    New York International Film Festival
Official Selection: Film Society of Lincoln Center
Festival, UK Jewish Film Festival, Hong Kong Jewish Film Festival, 2011
Montreal World Film Festival, 2011; AFI/Discover Channel Silver Docs Festival, 2011

Ali Messalam, 14, learned to hate Jews growing up in a Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon. Yearning to be accepted in his new Berlin neighborhood, Ali mixes with the wrong crowd. An anti-Semitic teen prank turns ugly and Ali gets caught vandalizing the apartment of his family's upstairs neighbor Alex Zamskov, an aging yet feisty Russian Jewish widower. Reluctantly, Ali's punishment is to refurbish the home of his victim, with whom he forges an uncommon bond. This touching story about unlikely friendships, trust, loss and the art of forgiveness blurs the lines between enemies and friends with humor and pathos.

Audience Award, Boston Jewish Film Festival, 2011.

This modern-day story of humanitarian activism and global goodwill tells the nearly forgotten story of Sir Nicholas Winton, a unique and courageous Englishman who saved 669 Czechoslovak Jewish children from the Nazis on the Kindertransport to England. This powerful part-dramatization, part-documentary film recreates the events of late 1939, when the young German stockbroker ran his secret rescue operation from a Prague hotel room. The film is a heartfelt tale of tragedy, hope and bravery against the odds which continues to influence people from all over the world and motivate them to do good. Today, Nicky's worldwide family - the men and women he saved and their descendants - has grown to almost 6,000 people

Winner, Best Documentary,
    Montreal World Film Festival 2011
    UK Jewish Film Festival 2011
Winner, David Camera Award for Best Music
    Warsaw Jewish Film Festival 2011
Winner, Forum for the Preservation of Audio-Visual Memory Award
    Jerusalem Film Festival 2011
Winner, Audience Award
    Karlovy Vary International Film Festival 2011

Reel Talk following film

Invited Guest Speakers

Alison Pick, author of Far To Go, Winner 2011 Canadian Jewish Book Award

Ivan Backer of Hartford, CT, one of "Nicky's children" rescued on the Kindertransport from Czechoslovakia to England in 1939

Moderator, Professor Avinoam Patt, Maurice Greenberg Center for Judaic Studies, University of Hartford.

The passionate tango is one of the most popular musical styles to come from Argentina, but few know of its distinctly Jewish immigrant beginnings, created by Jewish musicians who fled Russia for Buenos Aires at the end of the 19th century. Journalist Jose Judkovski blends musical recordings and family memories, colorful stories and enticing performances, bringing to light the tango's romantic history, its Jewish roots and modern-day revival.

Screening with THE HONEYMOON SUITE.

Complete strangers on their honeymoon, a newly married young Jewish bride and groom take clumsy first steps in their arranged marriage.

For the third year, the Mandell JCC Hartford Jewish Film Festival is thrilled to welcome the musical stars of The Hartt School for our grand finale. Closing night will feature a live concert following the film featuring popular and contemporary tango music and dance by Osvaldo Golijov, Igor Stravinsky, Astor Piazzolla, Carlos Gordel, Maximu Pujol and Jonathan Keren's Yiddish Tango (www.jonathankeren.com). The performance is programmed by Performance 20/20 and and choreographed by Dance Division students from The Hartt School, University of Hartford.

Opening Night Reception in Avery Court immediately following film.

Dance Division
Stephen Pier, Director
Students and Faculty

Performance 20/20 Musicians

Gary Capozziello, Mandolin & Violin
Emily Crompton, French Horn
Juliet Dawson, Viola
Jessica Dickinson, Cello
Erberk Eryilmaz, Piano
Kayla Herrmann, Cello
Schulyer Jackson, Bassoon
Alex Kollias, Clarinet
Annalise Ohse, Violin
Megan Natoli, Flute
Jun Kyu Park, Cello
Jaclyn Passoni, Guitar
Sean Rubin, Double Bass
Austin Smith, Oboe
Michelle Stockman, Flute
Marko Stuparevic, Piano
Fernando Velasquez-Vizcayno, Violin
Groa Valdimarsdottir, Violin
Moon Young Yang, Piano
Kum Joung Yao, Viola


Co-Directors
Robert Black and Maggie Francis